McMillen (center left) is shown receiving a package from a Durango representative during the Colorado-New Mexico Fair of 1913. The uniformed man standing between them appears to hold binoculars while some of McMillen’s crew check the Curtiss Model D’s structure.
Photo: Fort Lewis College
THE ONE-MAN, ONE-AIRPLANE
n September 1913, the dusty and colorful town of Durango, CO, lured attendees and boosted ticket sales to the Colorado-New Mexico Fair with the promise of
daily aeroplane fl ights made by Captain Ralph McMillen [1889–1916] of the Nebraska National Guard. McMillen arrived in Durango with his Curtiss Model
NATIONAL GUARD I
“D” biplane carefully disassembled and boxed in crates on the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad (D&RG). The Midwest fl ier would have to adjust quickly to the thin air at an elevation of 6,500 feet. He probably stayed at the luxurious Strater or General Palmer hotel on Main Street, which had been built when Durango “boomed” into existence during its early gold and silver mining years. With local help, McMillen trucked his machine to the nearby fair grounds where the pieces were soon assembled into the fi rst aeroplane seen in Durango. Durango historian Duane Smith described the Curtiss as “fragile in appearance,” but as something that “foretold great changes.” The organizers of the 1913 fair proudly bragged that they were “working like beavers” to contract McMillen to guarantee fl ights that lasted 30 minutes each day over their city. On the second day of the fair, McMillen took off easily from the fair grounds where 3,000 people watched him soar over Main Street and drop a message to Durango’s Mayor Seaton. A local resident found this note:
“Esteemed Sir:
Greetings to the people of the fair City of Durango through its executive offi cer – From the fi rst licensed aviator (No. 111) to make an ascension from the altitude of Durango or higher.”
McMillen’s fl ights were all safely fl own, despite engine
trouble during one return trip that forced him to land in a pasture. Repairs were made quickly and McMillen fulfi lled his contract.
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THE ORGANIZED MILITIA In her fi rst volume of Iowa Takes to the Air, author Ann Pellegreno describes McMillen living in Perry, IA, during 1912, when he fi rst became interested in fl ying. By then, McMillen, age 23, had been married at least three years. He must have been well endowed fi nancially at the time in order to purchase a Curtiss Model “D” aircraft for $6,000. (This would be like $150,000 today.) Between 1912 and 1916, McMillen earned his Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) license No. 111 and made exhibition fl ights at county fairs and other events, sometimes associated with the Young Aviation Company of Texas. He appeared in Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, North Dakota, Colorado, Texas and Oklahoma. He was also known to have fl own in Virginia and perhaps in California. Exhibition fl ying was lucrative but McMillen was less driven by fame and fortune than he was by patriotism. Before WWI, the U.S. lagged behind European countries
in building a useful branch of the military utilizing aircraft. The army placed its fi rst balloons and aircraft into the Signal Corps, although government funding was scarce. Similar diffi culties were simultaneously stunting the development of an aviation branch of the U.S. National Guard, formerly known as the Organized Militia, independently formed within each state.
THE CORNHUSKERS
By the time McMillen joined the Nebraska National Guard as a captain in 1913, he owned an aircraft and, although not yet required by law, he also had an aviator’s license. During 1914, without funding to purchase aircraft, the U.S.
Army organized the National Guard of the states into 12 divisions. At Lincoln in 1915, aviator Castle W. Schaff er was appointed the Nebraska National Guard’s chief of aviation. Schaff er grounded himself after unnerving accidents in his
By Giacinta Bradley Koontz
DOMmagazine
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